Singapore speaks the
Dragon's language By Eric Koo Peng Kuan
SINGAPORE - When Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
of Singapore announced in January 2003 that English
could be used to explain Chinese characters to students
in some primary schools, the experimental project
aroused great debate and controversy as to its
feasibility. In fact, when the mother tongue of
Singapore's largest ethnic group - comprising more than
75% of the city-state's population - ceased to be a
prerequisite entry requirement for its universities,
there were concerns that the standards of Mandarin
learning in speaking, reading and writing would be
lowered.
This month Singapore once again moved
to reform its Mandarin-teaching system. Education
Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said through the media
that the new changes would allow young students to enjoy
learning the Chinese language and gain confidence in
using it, with greater flexibility in learning pace, a
more interesting curriculum, and more emphasis on
reading and listening skills rather than on writing and
memorizing words and phrases.
The changes, which
many here say could not have been more timely, aim to
ease the learning burden on thousands of young
Singaporeans.
Singapore has good reasons for
such a pragmatic and enthusiastic approach to
cultivating the use of Mandarin among its young. The
rise of China in the 21st century, for one, opens
limitless opportunities for economic cooperation and
cultural discourse between Singapore and China. Since
the late 1960s, Singapore has pursued a policy of
bilingualism in its education system. As a result, while
other Chinese communities in Southeast Asia have, in
general, discarded Chinese education, Singapore's
Chinese community has had a better advantage in terms of
communication and discourse with China since the Dragon
began making overtures into Southeast Asia in the
mid-1980s.
Singapore is a multi-ethnic nation
where traditional Asian values clash with a liberal mix
of Western influence. The national first language is
English, a tongue that originally belonged to none of
the major ethnic groups - Chinese, Malay and Indian.
Alongside English, a host of other languages and
dialects are used as communication in everyday life.
However, because of the necessity of surviving in a
modern, affluent social setting and to meet the demands
of commercial and/or industrial activities, the English
language is rapidly permeating throughout the current
generation of young Singaporeans at the expense of their
mother tongues, specifically the original languages of
these ethnic groups - Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.
The Mandarin language is perhaps the most
affected. But while the younger generation in Singapore
now see less need for the use of Mandarin, the
government, sensing the value and importance of
maintaining the Mandarin language based on China's rise,
is anxious to preserve the linguistic edge of its
Chinese people.
Fighting for survival
The Chinese ethnic group makes up 76.7% of the
population of Singapore. As a result, one would think
Mandarin would frequently be used throughout the nation.
On the contrary, an environment with favorable
conditions to propagate Mandarin is sadly lacking in the
context of Singapore. There are several reasons for
this.
First, Mandarin is taught in
schools as an academic subject to be taken seriously.
This may seem to promote Mandarin speaking at first
glance, and indeed, Mandarin teachers do resort to the
kindling of interest in Chinese culture and history in
an effort to spur their charges to learn their Mandarin
lessons well. However, reality and practicality dictate
otherwise. The language of instruction for all other
subjects is English. Thus the opportunity to use
Mandarin is restricted to lesson time in a school
environment. Above all, because Mandarin is also an
examinable subject, the pressure of having to do well in
examinations imposes an unfavorable view of the language
on the malleable mind of the young student.
Second, the local examination system arranges for
students to take their mother-tongue examinations much
earlier than other subjects at the general certificate
of education "O" and "A" levels, ideally freeing more
revision time for the student preparing for these major
crossroad examinations. (Although English is taught to
students of all races, it is compulsory for each ethnic
group to study its mother tongue as well, if that tongue
is one of the republic's four official languages. Thus
ethnic Malays study Bahasa Melayu or Malay, and ethnic
Indians study Tamil.)
Of course, mother-tongue
teachers work closely with their other colleagues in
fulfilling such a goal by training and ushering as many
students as possible to pass and do well on their first
attempt. As a result, the study of Mandarin is reduced
to the status of an obligatory subject, where studying
and learning is a chore, to be quickly avoided once the
examination has been passed.
This
is not to say that Mandarin teachers themselves
contribute to lack of interest in learning the language
because of the system. On the contrary, their approach
is a sound and realistic examination-preparation
strategy that has been used for years. In reality, many
students simply can not afford the time for frivolous
pursuits and a better appreciation of Chinese culture
and language.
Third, Mandarin speaking is not
encouraged culturally or practically in society. Because
racial harmony is paramount in a multi-ethnic society
such as Singapore's, at the workplace, all jargon,
terminology and official correspondence are in English.
It is also impractical and unnecessary to translate
English technological or commercial terms into Mandarin
expressions. In general, Mandarin usage is negatively
perceived as a language of the local market and
therefore a mark of coming from a lower background of
education. It may also lead to the perception that those
speaking Mandarin do so because they have not mastered
English. Moreover, speaking Mandarin in the presence of
non-Chinese people is a mark of disrespect and bad
social manners.
Fourth, among Chinese people a variety of dialects
serve to fragment and undermine the use of the Mandarin
language. Singaporean-Chinese tend to regard dialect
speaking as a preservation of cultural features and
values. Curiously, in Chinese communities in Malaysia or
Taiwan, the view is the exact opposite - one would speak
Mandarin rather than a dialect as a mark of elegance and
education.
A difficult language to
learn Mandarin is reputed to be one of the most
difficult languages to learn in the world. Its system of
ideographs used for writing, and the four distinct tones
in pronouncing similar monosyllables, have baffled many
non-Chinese attempting to learn the language. It is no
different for Singaporean-Chinese children brought up in
a multilingual and multicultural environment.
The Chinese ideograph system of writing has
remained unchanged since ancient times. The Chinese
word, or character, is a symbol used to represent an
object, idea, action, concept or adjective. It is
pronounced in a fixed monosyllabic way. The way of
writing the character is also strictly fixed, with a
pre-set number of brush strokes in a fixed arrangement.
The absence of an alphabet meant that new characters had
to be invented over the ages, and some 50,000 characters
are now current in Mandarin. Learning Chinese,
therefore, entailed strict adherence to study and rote
learning. In the context of today's modern education
system, which calls for flexibility and analytical
thinking, utterly opposing routes of learning are
imposed on the already overtaxed Mandarin student.
The monosyllabic and tonal features of Mandarin
can be very confusing to the learner. For example, the
sound of the word shi could mean "yes", "death",
"gentleman", "use", "envoy", "eat", "truth", "history"
and so on, depending on which of the four tones are used
in pronouncing the word, or with which other Chinese
ideographs it is used, and in what context.
When
asked how one actually overcomes such difficulties and
starts learning the language, a Mandarin teacher said
that for the Chinese race, it is an inborn ability and
improves with age. He could not explain precisely why
this is so.
Research into linguistics has shown
that the evolution of Mandarin, classified as a
Sino-Tibetan language, was practically unique. It has
one of the few surviving character-based writing systems
in the world. Whereas other Asian languages such as
Korean and Japanese use or have used writing systems
heavily influenced by Chinese, both of these languages
eventually developed phonetically based writing systems.
To many, a character-based language is simply
unsuited for modern times, no matter how deep the
cultural wells or long the history from which the
language is drawn. With the onset of globalization and
the exchange of ideas, it is necessary for a language to
be able to accommodate foreign ideas, expressions and
concepts.
The English alphabet, for example, can
spell at the very least the basic sound of a Chinese
character, bringing across the idea that a cat is called
a mao in Mandarin. But a person explaining in
Mandarin would be hard pressed to describe what the same
animal is called in English, without the aid and
adoption of the English alphabet. The level of learning
for a character- or alphabet-based language, however,
varies from individual to individual, and there really
isn't a fixed pattern as to whichever type of language
is more difficult.
Why the big
fuss? Ultimately, Singapore's focus on
cultivating a love of learning Mandarin has much to do
with the rise of China. It is also a wise strategy
simply to capitalize and improve on an educational
policy already set in place long ago, to exploit the
advantages yielded from the efforts of sustaining and
maintaining bilingualism. As a result, Singapore has a
high percentage of trained members of the workforce with
both English- and Mandarin-speaking skills.
The
painstaking efforts of state-sponsored campaigns in
encouraging the use and learning of Mandarin are also
relevant in the local context. In the 1960s, the then
newly established People's Action Party of founding
father Lee Kuan Yew, father of Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong, saw Mandarin as a unifying factor in eliminating
differences separating the various groups of ethnic
Chinese, which were loosely organized into clans and
associations then based on provincial dialect groups in
China. Always a touchy issue, racial harmony is regarded
as paramount in multi-ethnic Singapore, to be maintained
as a key to preserving political stability. As time goes
by, new generations of young Singaporean-Chinese tend to
see themselves as Singaporean nationals first, rather
than belonging to some clan or dialect group.
By
the late 1990s, after three decades of rapid industrial
modernization and economic growth, this younger
generation of Singaporeans began to see fewer reasons to
master the Mandarin language, nor did they see any
relevance in learning traditional Chinese cultural
pursuits such as calligraphy, wayang (puppet
theater) or Chinese poetry.
Sensing this
progression, the government now is anxious to preserve
the linguistic edge of its Chinese people before its
dies out naturally in a non-conducive environment. In
must be noted, however, that the state-sponsored "Speak
Mandarin" campaign, aimed at encouraging the use of the
language by the local Chinese population, is unique. No
other Chinese community elsewhere in the world has been
guided by its state government to learn Mandarin. In
most places, this simply becomes a natural option;
either you do it privately or you don't. So it is no
surprise that second- or third-generation Chinese
immigrants living in Europe and America cannot speak
Mandarin.
Achieving a proficient level of
Mandarin speaking, writing and reading takes years, if
not decades, of continuous effort. Prime Minister Lee
was certainly not wrong to address this issue, and
quickly. In a few years' time, with callous neglect,
Mandarin in Singapore may be reduced to a language used
only privately at home among family or friends or for
watching Chinese television programs. The rise of China
has reawakened the awareness of the importance of the
Mandarin language and a new value is recognized in its
mastery. Singaporean-Chinese should at the very least
have an awareness of their cultural and linguistic roots
if they are to have any sense of national identity.
Eric Koo Peng Kuan is a freelance
writer who holds a master's degree in strategic studies
from the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies
(IDSS) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
He currently writes commentaries and analysis articles
on international affairs, security issues and
terrorism.
